Saturniidae and Sphingidae ( Lepidoptera , Bombycoidea ) assemblage in Vossoroca , Tijucas do Sul , Paraná , Brazil

The richness and abundance of the assemblage of species in a community are a way to understand the patterns of diversity found around the world. This study describes the assemblages of Saturniidae and Sphingidae in an area of Montana Mixed Ombrophilous Forest, Tijucas do Sul, Paraná, Brazil, 880m, 25°50'8.93"S, 49° 02'55.20"W. Samples were collected between November 2010 and September 2011 during two nights at the twelve new moons periods with a light trap equipped with black light lamp (ultraviolet) of 46 watts between two mercury mixed-light lamps HWL 250 watts from 6:00 p.m to 06:00 a.m. The sampling effort totaled 288 hours. This sampling effort was responsible for the capture of 1235 specimens, distributed in 124 species: 858 specimens and 86 species of Saturniidae, and 377 specimens and 38 species of Sphingidae. It is noteworthy the sampling of 10 new species: one of Automerella Michener, 1949, two of Hylesia Hübner, [1820], one of Lonomia Walker, 1855 and six of Periga Walker, 1855, that will be described.


INTRODUCTION
Faunistic studies allow us to answer primary fundamental questions in ecology, such as "what is the species composition in a given locality?"(Silveira et al. 2010), where species richness is commonly used as a community descriptor in many ecological studies (Magurran 2004).
All the information provided by these studies allow us to make long-term predictions about environmental changes, understand the resilience of organisms and their persistence in small fragmented habitats, which are isolated and / or have a long history of disturbance (Rubinoff and Powell 2004).
Without faunistic research performed in a systematic and comparative way, it is difficult to understand the real patterns of distribution of species richness, between different areas used by their populations and how this richness is distributed among different spatial and temporal niches.Likewise, it is difficult to assess the efficiency of collection methods.Furthermore, it also limits more robust conclusions regarding the use of these organisms as bioindicators (Carneiro and Leivas 2012), and support to conservation, preservation, environmental education and management strategies (i.e.Santos et al. 2008, Silveira et al. 2010, Freitas et al. 2011).
Studies on Saturniidae and Sphingidae are still scarce, even though they belong to a groups with a broad geographical distribution and reasonable taxonomic resolution (Lemaire 1978, 1980, 1988, 2002, Kitching and Cadiou 2000).As one example, the state of Paraná, despite having a track record of studies and support for research on Lepidoptera, still has a few lists: Saturniidae (Marinoni et al. 1999) and Sphingidae (Laroca and Mielke 1975, Laroca et al. 1989, Marinoni et al. 1997).
These moths, mostly nocturnal, are greatly diversified and ecologically important.They belong to the folivorous guild, having considerable influence on ecosystems due to being herbivorous and their role in the conversion of biomass (New 2013).It is estimated that food webs based on a plantherbivore relationship include a large proportion of the biodiversity, somewhere around 75% (Price 2002).They are equally important as prey within the food chains of birds, bats, parasitoids and parasites.Particularly only Sphingidae are important as pollinators once the Saturniidae species do not feed as adults (Janzen 1984).
Therefore, they represent important potential indicators of ecosystem health (Highland et al. 2013), has charismatic flagship species for conservation campaigns (New 2013), and their knowledge is important for understanding the complexity of tropical biodiversity and its maintenance (Balvanera et al. 2002, Novotny et al. 2010).
The area chosen for this research was the locality of Vossoroca, Tijucas do Sul, Paraná, within the Atlantic Forest biome, one of the global "hotspots" (Myers et al. 2000, Lewinsohn et al. 2005).This is the most altered Brazilian biome due to anthropogenic pressure (Mittermeier et al. 1998, Galindo-Leal andCâmara 2005).
Within this biome, the Montana Mixed Ombrophilous Forest phytoecological region, which historically covered an area equivalent to 164,042.75 km 2 (Hirota 2005) and extended from the southern part of state of São Paulo to the Misiones Province of Argentina (IBGE 1992), currently covers about 12% of its original distribution (Ribeiro et al. 2009).
Considering the population growth, the proximity to large urban centers, the inadequate land management and the location of one of the most important dams (Vossoroca Dam), it is critical to know and monitor this region in order to preserve the local biodiversity and the value of its ecosystem services.
This study was aimed at increasing our knowledge about the Saturniidae and Sphingidae assemblage within the Montana Mixed Ombrophilous Forest, thus contributing towards our understanding of the diversity of the Atlantic Forest biome.

STUDY AREA
The study was conducted at the farm of the "Associação dos Professores da Universidade Federal do Paraná" located in Vossoroca, Tijucas do Sul, Paraná,Brazil (25°50'08.93"S,49°02'55.20"W),at an altitude of 880m.This study site is located within the "Primeiro Planalto Paranaense", of the "Planalto de Curitiba" subunit, characterized by an altitudinal gradient ranging between 560 and 1240m with the predominance of elongated and flattened plateaus, convex slopes and "V" shaped valleys (Maack 1981, MINEROPAR 2001).
The climate is humid mesothermal subtropical or Cfb (according to the Wilhelm Koppen climate classification), with cool summers and no occurrence of severe and frequent frosts, probably due to high cloud cover present almost year round.The mean temperatures of the warmest months are below 22° C and the coldest months are lower than 18° C. The average annual rainfall is 1400mm, with a concentration of rainfall during the period from October to March, without a defined dry season (INMET 2009).
Currently, the surrounding areas are dominated by agricultural activities, pasture and mostly reforestations using exotic species belonging to logging companies, altering the natural vegetation cover.However, the study area is part of a fragment of native forest within larger reminiscent forests which are in different stages of succession, interspersed with civilian constructions and small farms.It is also part of the APA ("Área de Proteção Ambiental") of Guaratuba (IAP 2003).
Both local and regional floristic and phytosociological sources (i.e.Rondon-Neto et al. 2002, Liebsch and Acra 2004, Cordeiro and Rodrigues 2007, Sonego et al. 2007) can be consulted to better understand the type, composition and structure of the vegetation in the study area in the context of Montana Mixed Ombrophilous Forest.

SAMPLING
The collections were conducted on twelve excursions during the new moons, between November 2010 and September 2011, sampling between 06:00 p.m. and 06:00 a.m. hours during two nights, for a total of 24 nights and 288 hours.
The luminous attraction constituted of a reflective white cloth sheet, five meters long by three meters high, with a 46 watt black light (ultraviolet) Golden ® lamp centrally positioned in front, along with two 250 watt mercury vapor mixed light HWL Osram ® lamps suspended 1.5m above the ground and 1.5m apart from one another.
Specimens were collected manually and directly from the sheet or using an entomological net.Each specimen was then sacrificed with a drop of ammonia injected into the thorax, or placed inside a killing jar containing ammonia or ether, and then packaged in individual entomological envelopes with the collection time information.Continuous searches were also carried out within a 10m radius in order to collect specimens that land on the vegetation or soil near the light.This method has the advantage of allowing the collection of undamaged specimens, preserving important characteristics used for identification and for future taxonomical studies (Axmacher and Fiedler 2004).
In the laboratory, the collected specimens were sexed, individually numbered and identified, and their date was entered in a database.Some of the specimens were prepared and deposited in the Coleção Entomológica Pe.Jesus Santiago Moure (DZUP), Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.Others were dried, placed in envelopes and stored in the DZUP entomological collection.

DATA ANALYSIS
The richness and dominance were chosen to describe and characterize the structure of the assemblage that was also qualitatively compared with those from other localities for which there are published inventories.These lists of species were updated to reflect the most recent changes in the taxonomy of the species.Places with more than 10 species were chosen, in order to represent the neighboring areas (Table I).These areas are from the Brazilian states of Espirito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Santa Catarina, and also from Misiones in Argentina.
Following Brose and Martinez (2004), Jackknife 2 was calculated in order to evaluate the sampling efficiency, to generate an estimated richness with the most appropriate richness estimator and in order to prepare of rarefaction curves.The X axis was transformed for individuals following Gotelli and Colwell (2001).Both procedures were implemented with the use of the EstimateS 8.2 program (Colwell 2005).

RESULTS
With 288 hours of sampling effort, 1,235 specimens (N) were collected, distributed in 124 species (S), with 858 specimens representing Saturniidae has the most extreme differences in abundance due to Pseudautomeris coronis (Schaus, 1913) (96 specimens) that differing in a broad margin from the second most abundant, Cerodirphia vagans (Walker, 1855) (40 specimens) (Table II).
The representativeness of the samples (Figure 2) can be better visualized by observing the estimated richness calculated with Jackknife 2. Saturniidae resulted in 116.24 species which represents 73.98% of the richness.For Sphingidae, the estimated species richness generated was 50.66 (75.01% of the observed).
The abundance follows this same quantitative relationship, with a slight variation in Sphingidae, with Sphinginae being richer than Smerinthinae (Figure 3A) but less abundant (Figure 3B).
Comparing this species richness with that of published inventories in the Paraná, indicated that Tijucas do Sul, has more species of Saturniidae recorded in this state (Figure 4A).In comparison to other localities, it is the fourth largest list, followed by the species lists from Santa Teresa (S = 123), São Bento do Sul (S = 114) and Seara (S = 91).In the case of Sphingidae, other localities were richest (Figure 4B).In the distribution of richness among the subfamilies of Saturniidae, Hemileucinae (Figure 5A) being the richest, followed by Ceratocampinae (Figure 5B).Hemileucinae tends to appear as the richest subfamily in most localities, especially in lists with a long sampling history, such as that of Santa Teresa and São Bento do Sul, or with intensified sampling (Figure 5A).With respect to Arsenurinae (Figure 5D), Tijucas do Sul has a richness (S = 5) similar to Guarapuava, Blumenau, Rio Brilhante and Paracatu, and a low richness compared to Santa Teresa (S = 16) and São Bento do Sul (S = 13).
For Saturniinae, with seven species (Figure 5C), it resembles that of Santa Teresa, Joinville and São Francisco de Paula, being less rich than São Bento do Sul and Seara (S = 9).Oxyteninae has very few samples and was only present in the lists from Tijucas do Sul and Antonina (S = 1) (Figure 5E).Macroglossinae was the subfamily of Sphingidae with the greatest number of species and has a large influence on the richness in this inventory (Figure 6A), but when compared with other localities, including the closer areas of Morretes (S = 35), Quatro Barras (33) and São José dos Pinhais (S = 27) (Figure 6A), showed a low richness.With Smerinthinae and Sphinginae this pattern is quite similar (Figure 6 A-C).
-the record of Xylophanes crenulata for Paraná does not refer to a new species record.Probably all the old records of Xylophanes ceratomioides from Paraná could be X.crenulata (Vaglia and Haxaire 2009).
-Lonomia obliqua and Lonomia paraobliqua indicated as having different geographic distributions (Brechlin et al. 2011), were collected together in Tijucas do Sul with an overlap of distributions, as well as a short temporal overlap of populations.

DISCUSSION
This research presents the largest list of Saturniidae published to date for Paraná, with 86 species, including 67.19% of the 128 Saturniidae species listed for this state of Brazil.The largest previously published list of Marinoni et al. (1997) includes 83 Saturniidae species from eight localities in Paraná, with the greatest richness (43 species) in São José dos Pinhais.
The methodology used in this inventory resulted in a species list which adequately represents the local and regional biodiversity of this assemblage.Furthermore, Tijucas do Sul only has fewer species of Saturniidae when compared to localities where continuous inventories have been conducted for several years and therefore have more complete lists, such as in Santa Teresa, São Bento do Sul and Seara (Figure 4A).The Sphingidae of Tijucas do Sul did not have the same diversity as other nearby areas, which have comparable sampling efforts and similar attraction methods.
The rarefaction curves for the two families indicated that the richness encountered and the expected numbers of species, are greater for Saturniidae than for Sphingidae, considering that the curves and confidence intervals (standard deviation) overlap in the samples under 100 individuals.By analyzing the instability of the species rarefaction curve for Saturniidae, it is possible to infer the existence of species that could be collected and this may suggest the need for additional local or regional collection, with focus on species which have more restricted temporal niches.It is also possible to infer a greater increase of the lists based on the regional diversity presented in other species lists from nearby locations (Marinoni et al. 1997(Marinoni et al. , 1999)).
For the Saturniidae, the species richness accumulation curve indicated that further inventories are essential due to the restrictive behavioral characteristics of their adults, which do not feed, have a short seasonal lifespan, a concentrated emergence of individuals, restricted geographical distributions and a reduced migratory capacity.The recognition of ten new species was noteworthy, particularly because Tijucas do Sul be close to a research center with a long history of regional collection.With these results it is possible to make forecasts about the expected biodiversity of this assemblage in other areas which remain unknown and are inaccessible to researchers.Furthermore, the number of species, especially those of cryptic genera (i.e.Periga and Hylesia), is expected to increase in areas yet to be sampled, at different times and altitudes, together with the increase of sampling intervals and use of different light sources.
For the subfamily Oxyteninae, there is little information available for comparison as it has been systematically excluded from Saturniidae in some studies, and also because some species are diurnal.
The structure of the Sphingidae community in Tijucas do Sul seems to be very similar to most of the other areas compared herein, especially when compared with areas of similar vegetation structure (i.e.Quatro Barras, Morretes and São José dos Pinhais).
Several characteristics of the Sphingidae may have influenced their low diversity in Tijucas do Sul and the resulting species list.Some of these being: their large dispersal ability and low attractiveness to light traps, already reported for many species (Janzen 1984), their diurnal and / or crepuscular habits, such as in Aellopos (Janzen 1984, Kitching andCadiou 2000); and the discovery of a few new species, despite the taxonomic stability of the group.
However, with a small increase of the collection effort in Tijucas do Sul, it should be possible to record the species listed in neighboring areas, since local species richness tends to be correlated with regional richness (Caley and Schluter 1997).
The distribution of richness and abundance among the subfamilies generally follows the same quantitative relationship within families, and this can be seen as a general feature for any locality.In general, Hemileucinae and Macroglossinae are the most diverse subfamilies of Sphingidae and Saturniidae, respectively, in the Neotropical region (Heppner 1998).Numerically, Hemileucinae is the most representative of the subfamilies, followed by Ceratocampinae, Saturniinae and Arsenurinae (Lemaire 2002), and Macroglossinae is the most diverse, followed by Sphinginae and Smerinthinae.This pattern appears to be recurrent in the published inventories of these families and does not depend on local habitat (Camargo andBecker 1999, Marinoni et al. 1999).Decaëns et al. (2003) suggest that this pattern in community structure is a representation of the known diversity in each subfamily.
However, even extremely diverse groups may be less rich in certain habitats (Brehm et al. 2003) and further studies should be conducted.For example, Camargo and Becker (1999) suggest that this pattern may be different for the Cerrado biome, suggesting that Arsenurinae and Ceratocampinae tend to be more diversified due to their greater resistance to the water stress of these regions.
In general, one finds a pattern of high dominance for some species and most of the species have low abundances (Magurran 1988).For herbivores this has been a recurring pattern, particularly for moths (Camargo 1999, Novotny and Basset 2000, Teston and Delfina 2010).Both assemblages analyzed in this study have many species with low numbers of individuals, especially evident in Saturniidae.Analyzing the component of dominance, inferred by the slope of the curve formed by the arrangement of relative abundances in descending order, it can be seen that the Saturniidae assemblage has a much more smoother curve than that of Sphingidae, assuming that the more pronounced curvature formed in Sphingidae could indicate lower the evenness (Melo 2008).
The accumulation pattern of individuals per species during the collection period is very similar, even with different abundances, with Saturniidae having high abundances concentrated during shorter periods than those of Sphingidae.In the future, the study of the comparative phenology of these groups may allow a broader ecological understanding of how populations of these species are structured over time, in the region.
The most common species of both families differ from those found in other studies, even in those from nearby localities (see Marinoni et al. 1997Marinoni et al. , 1999)).Several factors may be involved in this differentiation, namely temporal factors, with supra-annual events, availability of host plants, and absence or reduction of parasitoids, among others.However, species like Erinnyis ello ello (Sphingidae) are among the most common of the Americas and found in virtually all inventories (Winder 1976).
If we assume that the richness in Tijucas do Sul, Vossoroca, represents the surrounding habitats, it can be inferred that the neighboring localities are very rich for Saturniidae, compared to other inventoried sites located in the Atlantic forest (i.e.São Bento do Sul) and that the regional forest cover is allowing the maintenance of this diversity.As for the Sphingidae community, the composition is very similar to other nearby areas but less rich when compared to places like Morretes and to other inventories with a comparable sampling effort.It is possible that, in this case, for the Sphingidae, the effect of altitude was more important, with a greater richness in lowland areas.

CONCLUSIONS
Together with the works of Marinoni et al. (1997Marinoni et al. ( , 1999)), Conte and Machado (2005), Bishop and Scherer-Neto (2010), this study consolidates the region as an area of high species richness.It should be noted that, compared to other studies, the collecting methods used, particularly the sampling effort with uninterrupted collections during the evening and morning twilights, may have been the factor responsible for such a high richness pattern.
The knowledge of the diversity of a specific locality or habitat has been frequently requested, in order to justify policies of preservation, conservation and management.Therefore, as this study shows, knowing the fauna ensures subsidies for conservation and management studies, which are important to develop more efficient strategies, especially in areas that are undergoing rapid degradation as is the situation of the "Floresta Ombrófila Mista Montana" (Lewinsohn et al. 2005, Santos et al. 2008, Nobre et al. 2008, Freitas et al. 2011).
Thus, inventories should be considered as priorities of our society (Conservation International do Brasil et al. 2000, Ministério do Meio Ambiente 2002) due to the increase in the conversion rate of habitats into simplified agro-silvicultural landscapes, which extinguishes more species than the capacity of taxonomists to recognize then (Primack and Rodrigues 2001). in field work.The authors are thankful for the critical reviews of anonymous reviewers.They are also grateful to the M.Sc.Roger Hutchings (INPA) for his review and for the English translation.We acknowledge the Associação dos Professores da Universidade Federal do Paraná and their staff members Ademir Velozo and Maria Velozo for granting us permission to access the area and for their invaluable assistance.We extend our gratitude to the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Entomologia (Departamento de Zoologia/UFPR) and to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the author's fellowships (process N.º 132372/2010-0) and for complementary productivity grants.

Figure 1 -
Figure 1 -Curve of the dominance component being represented by the relative abundance of species caught: Saturniidae (A) and Sphingidae (B).

Figure 5 -
Figure 5 -Richness of the subfamilies of Saturniidae (A-E) compared between different localities.

Figure 6 -
Figure 6 -Richness of the subfamilies of Sphingidae (A-C) compared between different localities.

TABLE I Checklist of the localities with inventories that were used to compare with the fauna of Tijucas do Sul, Vossoroca, Paraná, Brazil.
Brown Jr and Freitas (1999)SAT; SPH 650m 19°56'10"s 40°36'06"w 86 species in 33 genera of Saturniidae and 377 specimens of 38 species in 15 genera of Sphingidae (Table II).Most species were represented by few individuals concentrated in a group of species (Figure 1 A-B).Of the 86 species of Saturniidae

TABLE II (continuation)
Figure 4 -Richness of Saturniidae (A) and Sphingidae (B) compared between different localities.